Shak

Agree with what Brummie is saying, but the upcoming fixture list is very, very difficult for the rest of the season and I hope people will be patient enough if things take a fair turn for the worse, which is still entirely possible. As long as we don't get pulled into a relegation fight, I'm happy enough to write the season off in terms of where we finish and try to get things right for next a year. I just hope we start to get some consistency in our play going, hopefully get a cup run going but very little chance of us winning it. We need a couple of top class additions, but I feel we should have a solid enough base being built this season throughout the club in general. With so many changes throughout the club I think we should be content to let all the new men in charge take a bit of time to get settled and try and get things going where they want them. As long as we're not being threatened by relegation, I don't see any sense in upheaving things with our manager. If we're still playing like this in a years time, then Allardyce should be under severe scrutiny, but I would expect we won't be if we give him time.

Funny that. The way people go on here, you would have thought that dropping Geremi would have improved our midfield. Perhaps not. Touche James, touche Agree with Nut, Emre really should be getting a few more chances to start and see if he can get some form going. He's been poor at times, but he's someone who at least looks capable of making something happen and playing the ball about. I remember in Roeder's early time we played a sort of 4-4-1-1 with Emre just off the striker and we played some cracking stuff at times with him in extremely advanced positions, Solano's goal against Everton came in a game with him there. Give him a game playing just off Viduka with a couple of wingers either side, have him the most advanced with Barton and Butt doing the bulk of the work defensively. Whether he'd be good enough there long term I don't know, he's always been very erratic. But he's a clever footballer and would certainly give us something we sorely lack in the final third right now.

If we're going to play 4-3-3/4-5-1 then we need players either side of him who are fast enough to get up and support him quickly, as he's great when he has to play little one-touch stuff and bring other players into the game. I'd love to see Duff on the right and N'Zogbia on the left of Viduka up top, they're fast enough and direct enough to really compliment what Viduka does best. Gives us the gola thrwat that Smith never will also. Can see an arguement for starting Smith away from home, especially given Viduka's fitness levels, but Viduka at home very time.

Over-reliance on analogies somewhat tarnished what was otherwise a very nice post.

It'll be Barton for sure.

Friend of mine is Liverpool fan who has a theory about Benitez. Reckons it's an ego thing and that he rotates them all so that it makes Benitez the focal point, the man who will ultimately be seen as the reason for their success while the players are just part of the succesful system.

Aye, it's impossible to get a Barcelona game on Sky Sports these days. I believe that we'll be looking to add a striker sooner rather than later, but I wouldn't expect it to happen in January and, as has been said, Gudjohnsen definitely isn't the type of striker we need for our system. So he'd be deployed in midfield mostly if he came in I'd bet, and we know Allardyce likes versatility so I wouldn't be surprised if he's a target. Long term our number one target needs to be finding a true focal point striker for the 4-3-3, none of the players in our squad are even close to ideal for it at all.

Must be said, Man U have a large number of players that you just know are absolute dickheads. Ronaldo, Nani, Anderson and Rio Ferdinand in particular just stand out as people that I reckon I'd absolutely hate to have any sort of conversation with.

Nice post. Think 4-3-3 is the way we'll most likely going from now on, and it has been doing us good. Looking forward to getting some better suited players, especially in wide areas. N'Zogbia is being improved I suppose, but I'd just worry about him getting his chance especially when Duff gets back. Think he's perfect for the left sided role in a 4-3-3, I'd just let him off the leash and have him as one of our most attacking players with a LB behind him. If we're mad to splash some cash I think Quaresma could be an ambitious target to play the other side, reckon he'd flourish in the direct style of the Premiership. Other teams could be interested of course, but can't hurt to try in the summer.

Awh, what a lovely thread. Merry Xmas, yeah.

This might explain a few things as to how the big man views the players... No wonder Viduka's on the bench if Sam thought he was the playing s*** as a right midfielder. Thought someone would comment this... Seems I'm the only one who thought it was funny. Forget it, probably just me being messed up... : Do you find your own avatar and sig to be particularly funny, or clever for that matter? If so we may have found the root of the problem.

Duff is a player that, for me, has always had to be 100% fit and sharp to be very effective, as he's not got a lot of tricks or ways to beat a man, so he relies on his quickness over a couple of yards to get himself in space. But when he has that, he's a very dangerous player and I'd be vastly more hopeful of Duff making a consistantly positive impact than I am with Milner. Sam puts a lot of emphasis on fitness, I've said since he was appointed that Duff could be one of the biggest beneficeries of Sam coming in. Fair points, and Duff has been atrocious for us so far and I was one of his biggest critics last year. But is the purpose of a winger not to provide that bit of quality rather than just keep possession and link the play, as Milner does? Duff may lose the ball more often than not, but at least he's trying to get at the other team and ask them questions rather than just playing it safe, linking the play and really not providing much in the way of real problems for the opposition. Ronaldo gives the ball away very regularly, but nobody says boo to him because they know that eventually he's liable to do something brilliant with it. I'd play N'Zogbia down the left ahead of both of them though, personally.

It's obvious they're father and son tbh. I mean they have the exact same posting style, so what other explanation can there be? Obviously a chip off the old block.

It was more the overly-dramatic statements rather than construction, for me anyway. You don't agree that our 'squud will collapse'? Not as such, no.

It was more the overly-dramatic statements rather than construction, for me anyway.

Where's the Christmas hat, man? I just found this new avatar that I simply MUST use, and I possess neither photoshop nor Paint (bizarre as that may seem) so kinda fudged. If anyone feels inspired to help out then that'd be great, but really the imminent collapse of our squad worries me more. Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, Add/Remove Windows Components, double click Accessories and Utilities, then Accessories, check Paint. Save out.

Where's the Christmas hat, man? I just found this new avatar that I simply MUST use, and I possess neither photoshop nor Paint (bizarre as that may seem) so kinda fudged. If anyone feels inspired to help out then that'd be great, but really the imminent collapse of our squad worries me more.

No, not everything. We still have these threads.

Not true. Owen is a much more intelligent player. He will make better runs and get in better positions. Sure, but what has that got to do with what I said? Him doing those things helps the team, maybe? He's also much better at taking the ball in and moving it onto a teammate than Martins. They're very different in terms of what they offer, against lesser teams I'd want Owen as he'd help us in our build up play much more than Oba. Against better teams you'd have Martins on there in the hope he doe something spectacular on his own, as we'll likely not have enough of the ball in advanced positions for Owen to be effective.

Martins can be abysmal all game but if he gets a goal or two he'll be forgiven. Such is the life of a striker. It's fair enough, but you can both surely see that it severely hurts the team in general on days where Martins doesn't pull out a goal from somewhere, as he contributes pretty much nothing in terms of build-up play for the rest of the team. I'd much prefer a player who scores less goals and can actually play a bit of football and improve the team with what he offers as a whole, rather than a headless chicken who scores the odd wonder goal here and there. Martins still has time to improve, but I'm really not seeing any development in his awareness sadly.

Sums it up well tbh. Still only young though so I'd expect he'll get better at producing against better players as time goes on.

Sound's like a rich man's Milner to me...

Yeah, along with Gerrard, Torres, Lampard, Rooney, Fabregas Difference being, some of these players occasionally do produce top form in big games. Ronaldo never does. Didn't you watch the last World Cup? No, not really. Can't really comment then, can you. Do you understand the difference between a big game and a big tournament? Do you understand that big games come within a big tournament? Yes. I don't personally count Iran, Mexico and Angola as massive tests though, which was who Portugal played in the group stages. Don't recall Ronaldo playing great against England or Holland, two games I did actually see and would classify as big games. Which is my point, not sure what yours is. Really? He can't really play well when he's not playing can he? He did play very good against England and France in the Semi-Final, did you not bother watching Euro 2004 either? The one Portugal got to the final in, the one where Ronaldo was one of the top scorers in the tournament including one in the Semi-Final. That said, it was only a big tournament, wasn't it? I actually missed the entire Euro Championships in 2004 as it happens, was away for the summer. I'm not sure you've quite grasped the concept of a big game yet either. My point is that Ronaldo is, for the overwhelming majority of big games he plays in, not in the least bit outstanding for a player of his abilities. ...and you'd be 100% right. I learned from the best.